Kapuls eye OFC semis

 By HENRY MORABANG
PAPUA New Guinea must pray for a miracle to happen in their remaining Group B matches to qualify for the semi-final next Wednesday.
With the race for the semi-final wide open, Papua New Guinea must beat Samoa by more than seven goals, and hope that Tahiti would beat New Caledonia in the last pool matches on Sunday.
Group B leader New Caledonia are on the top spot on goal percentage, while defending champion Tahiti are on second spot, as both teams share four points apiece.
Papua New Guinea drew its two games and is on two points, while Samoa is yet to register a point.
PNG coach Flemming Serritslev will be banking on his players to lift their performance to score more goals against Samoa.
He was disappointed that his boys could not hold the 2-0 score to win, allowing Tahiti to came back to force a draw on Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s too bad for us to let them come back and equalise when they were only 10 men,” he said.
“We more or less stopped playing when we were 2-0 up.
“Instead of pressing and trying to crush them totally, we went back into our own half.”
The return of Tommy Semmy should spark off some fireworks upfront while Jacob Sabua, who served his apprenticeship well against Tahiti, should be given another chance to partner David Muta.
Samoan coach Scott Easthope lamented his players’ lack of concentration, especially in the first-half, which resulted in them conceding seven goals from New Caledonia.
“We had some mental lapses early in the game, particularly in the first-half, and just got punished by sides who are a lot more clinical than we are at the moment,” Easthope said.
Easthope said he hoped for a great improvement when they take on hosts, Papua New Guinea, on Sunday.